FDR v. The Constitution: The Court-Packing Fight and the Triumph of Democracy

FDR v. The Constitution: The Court-Packing Fight and the Triumph of Democracy : The Supreme Court has generated many dramatic stories, none more so than the one that began on February 5, 1937. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, confident in his recent landslide reelection and frustrated by a Court that had overturned much of his New Deal legislation, stunned Congress and the American people with his announced intention to add six new justices. Even though the now-famous âcourt packingâ scheme divided his own party, almost everyone assumed FDR would get his way and reverse the Court's conservative stance and long-standing laissez-faire support of corporate America, so persuasive and powerful had he become. I n the end, however, a Supreme Court justice, Owen Roberts, who cast off precedent in the interests of principle, and a Democratic senator from Montana, Burton K. Wheeler, led an effort that turned an apparently unstoppable proposal into a humiliating rejection - and preserved the Constitution. FDR v. Constitution is the colorful story behind 168 days that riveted - and reshaped - the nation.